Gelly~ Ugh! Sorry about AF! Especially to arrive so viciously at 5:30. What a way to wake up! I hope you don't have to take the next cycle off. I'm also sorry you have to work tomorrow. They just called off our school for another day. I'm very pleased (even though having the dog trapped in the house is doing my head in!!!)

Escher~ Looking forward to hearing about your temps/decisions. I don't know why your doc wouldn't see the advantages of more than one IUI though. Um, more swimmers?

AFM~ DP is suddenly abustle with the home projects, to which I say HALLELUJAH!! Right now she's hanging the new hat/coat rack in the hallway. You go girl!!!

Tea ... I'm also on progesterone. Endometrin, 100mg three times daily. That's 300mg! I took progesterone for the whole first trimester with my daughter. It's standard protocol at our RE. Best of luck and many prayers and steadying thoughts coming your way!

Mrs. PP ... That sounds like a lovely way to spend a snowy afteroon! Enjoy!

donor question: We "adopted" our embryos, so the other women who originated them chose the donor. Thankfully they chose a guy with double degrees in medicine and biology, because the egg donor friend of ours is very creative and spacy.

screen name question: 'starling' is what I often go by online, and my partner goes by 'diesel,' so there you have it. How butch/femme can you get? Anyway, we came here as a couple first, looking into all things queerly conceptual, so we made a sign in name together. But I'm the one who hangs out here now.

AFM: Went to get the blood test today to check the betas. I was there when it opened at 0700 with hopes that maybe if I was super early, I'd get a call today with the results. Not likely. Ever hopeful!

Sorry to everyone else who I missed ... and a big warm welcome to the new mamas-to-be!

Isa~ Have you been over to NW Andrology forums? Wow...they sure are kinda snippy. I love this list and I have heard good things about the MWSB list on Babycenter. Apparently over there at NW Andrology they are not liking the infulx of newbies to their list who are inquiring about it's services, sperm qualities, donor info, etc. I haven't posted anything there yet...I started to but read a post blasting newbies before I did. Not sure if that's the bank for us...just feeling snubbed by more 'mean girls'.

Gelly~ How dreadful! I've never been to the board you're talking about, but what a way to treat people! I hate internet meanness, especially on this kind of a message board. How dare you throw shade at someone for being new. Mean girls indeed!!

Starling~ Very frustrating. Hope you get the good news early tomorrow.

AmandaHope: I've heard that follicles can be mature at 18mm and that they grow 1-2mm a day, which made 24 hours after 17mm seem about right. Have you heard something different? I wish that all REs agreed on this kind of information, but I know that they don't. Anyway, I agree that two IUIs is usually better than one, but I would have leaned more towards one today and one tomorrow if that had been possible. I did get a positive opk today and my cervix is definitely softer, so all my signs seem to be saying go. I don't know.

Seraf: The time I managed to get pregnant I insemmed before I even had a positive opk. It's unfortunately already too late for that this cycle (I got a positive opk at 10:30am), but I'll work harder for that timing next cycle. Or maybe I'll somehow be insanely lucky and it will just work this time even though my timing isn't perfect. We'll see!

Hi, Escher. I thought they were mature at 20mm. I often triggered at 18-20mm or so and then did IUIs at 12 and 36 hours post-trigger, so that's what I was thinking. But if you already surged (positive OPK), then tomorrow seems like the perfect timing to me. I'd probably do the second one as insurance, but I see why think that might be late. And it makes sense to try to go early, since that's what has worked for you before. The good news is that tomorrow's insem seems really promising! Fingers crossed tight~

Wow, I really need to try harder to keep up with you guys! Here goes...

Seraf - Thanks for the fancy new thread. I'm certain it will bring you lots of luck for your first IUI this cycle!

Library - I grew up in Michigan and am missing the snow days we used to get. I don't want to rub it in or anything, but it was 68 and sunny here today. Maybe that will entice your DP to come work on our house? I've got a bathroom mirror that's needed to be hung for over a year.

Tea - What an amazing tale! It sounds like your doc thinks you're not having a healthy pregnancy, and taking the progesterone will just delay the inevitable miscarriage. I say boo to that! I'm no medical professional, but I would say that's a healthy bean until proven otherwise. I'm glad you decided to listen to your midwife. Dancing veggies for your healthy baby!

MrsPP - I'm so glad to hear you found your perfect donor! I think things always work out for the best in the end. So what kind of band is Nicki in? What does she play? Sue plays lead guitar and wants to start up a band as soon as her broken arm is completely healed.

Gelly - I'm glad you were approved for infertility coverage, but that's awful it supposedly started 4 months ago. Do you plan to call and see if you can get that corrected? What a rip! Oh, and I would avoid getting a second HSG at all costs, but that's only because mine was so painful. I say go with the recommendation of your health professional. I hope DW feels better soon!

Max - Sorry about your BFN. Of course it was too early, and you'll get that BFP you're looking for tomorrow.

2ez - Crossing my fingers you only have to spend $2000 on one cycle, and then you can start saving for baby stuff!

Escher - I'm so glad your lining is looking good enough for an insem this cycle! It seems like you were just in the TWW, and you'll be back again so soon. My RE also says he doesn't see an advantage of doing more than one IUI each cycle, but I'm thinking 2 insems is a good idea if it's financially doable. Maybe you could do one in the morning and one in the late afternoon tomorrow? Like LibraryLady said, the more the merrier! Go team Amanda! P.S. Thanks for stalking my chart.

Isa - I enjoyed the pic of your doggies in the snow.

Lise - I look forward to your happy news tomorrow!

QOTD1 - We definitely wanted a donor who was identity release, had reported pregnancies, and had an available baby photo. After that, we looked at medical history and essay answers. Like MrsPP, we didn't want someone who sounded like a douche. We wanted someone artistic/musical like Sue, and we looked for Irish/Scottish in his background because we want a redhead baby, like me.

QOTD2 - My screen name is pretty self-explanatory. My name is Amanda, and I want to be a Mom. I realized after I joined this thread last year that my screen name is very close to AmandaHope, and I even tried to change mine to avoid the confusion. I couldn't find an option for that, though.

AFM - 12dpo and I got a BFN. It's because of Krista and Teamusery I haven't given up hope. When I poas today, I had barely enough pee to do the test, so I've been holding it for a few hours and plan to test again in an hour or so. Once I start testing, I just can't stop! I don't have any symptoms to speak of, unless you count clumsiness. I dropped my toothbrush... while brushing my teeth. I tripped and fell down the stairs. I was close to the bottom, and don't worry, I'm okay! I've had trouble balancing while drying myself off after my shower. Not sure you can call those pregnancy symptoms! Ah, only time will tell.

AmandaMom: I'm sorry for the BFN. I'm glad you haven't given up hope. Especially in terms of holding the pee until it's more concentrated!

And the debate rages on about how many inseminations one should do each cycle. I debated back when I was doing two IUIs that maybe we should do it. Especially if we were uncertain of timing. I think if you feel more uncertain on your timing each month, then doing two is a good idea. Some studies show that it increases potential but not everyone agrees with that. All I can say is that this time when I did get pregnant, we had done the most inseminations ever. It was a total of four but with two different donors. But I also felt the timing was spot on (which apparently it was) and that still remains key.

Additionally, are some of you making changes in donors when you don't get pregnant by them after a certain number of times? And are you picking donors that have pregnancies on file?

Krista - Thanks for the encouragement. We bought six vials of this donor and have used five so far. That leaves one left for next month. He's no longer available, but we had planned on switching donors after these initial six vials were used anyway. I checked our bank's website (TSBC), and they have two new redheads whom I'd love to learn more about!

AFM, I took another test and... I dunno. I think I see a shadow. I'm sure it's just my mind playing tricks on me. Hold all congrats and veggie parades until I can be certain there's actually a line there. Please send BFP vibes my way, everyone! More tomorrow.

Krista - Thanks for the encouragement. We bought six vials of this donor and have used five so far. That leaves one left for next month. He's no longer available, but we had planned on switching donors after these initial six vials were used anyway. I checked our bank's website (TSBC), and they have two new redheads whom I'd love to learn more about!

AFM, I took another test and... I dunno. I think I see a shadow. I'm sure it's just my mind playing tricks on me. Hold all congrats and veggie parades until I can be certain there's actually a line there. Please send BFP vibes my way, everyone! More tomorrow.

Oh oh oh! The veggies want to dance! So hold it all night and POAS first thing, ok? BFP vibes coming your way for sure!!

Escher: My RE said that when a woman is doing a medicated, monitored, triggered cycle, there is no proven advantage to doing two IUIs over one. However, if there is any doubt at all about timing (ie, no trigger), there could well be a benefit. So that's my two cents. I'll be thinking about you in the morning.

Amanda: post pictures! We love to interpret almost there lines. Just remember: evap line is something that appears after 10 minutes. Anything before is good. And anything remotely the color of the control line is positive. A line is a line!

I'm jealous of everyone's snow! My friends all have pictures of their lovely miles of snow online and hearing all of you guys talk about it sure does make me miss these crazy blizzards! I'm hoping tonight we get some suprise snow and a few inches appear on the ground. It seems there is already double our 'less than an inch possibility' of snow out there! Stay warm and safe and keep grabbing onto poles as necessary!

DP to Sara, two crazy kids running around, lil dude born 11-1-11 and the new guy is home !! (5/2/12)

Nevermind!!! I think I found it!!! Unless there is more than one...(I found the "About All the Donor Questions" and it pissed me off)

Yeah that's it...and it had the same effect on me too. WTF? I don't even know what to say...NW moderator did post something welcoming everyone...I think trying to smooth over what the mean girls had said, but it was kinda too little too late for me.

I don't know if my doctor was factoring the Femera into the situation. I think he just thinks I am going to miscarry so taking the progesterone would keep me from miscarrying as soon. I go back for my 2nd beta tomorrow so I will know more then. I have decided to do everything that I can do to protect this baby even if it is only here for a little while. I know that it is not coincidence that I found about this pregnancy after my period was over................I mean who would think to test.

I can't help but wonder what happened. I was getting negative HPTs at days 13, 14, and 15 and my period started on day 15. I stopped my progesterone suppositories on day 14 like they told me to. I didn't take another test on day 16 like I normally do because I started my period. I figured I was out for this cycle. I mean wouldn't anyone? I think the doctor is concerned with my hcg levels/natural progesterone levels. My hcg was an 81. If I had gotten a positive on day 13 or 14 and only had an 81 then I could see the problem a little more, but we aren't really sure the first day that the HPT registered positive. My hcg is apparently increasing (even with a period) so my midwife thinks the little booger might be a tenacious little thing. I hope so!

I inseminated on January 9 (Sunday)...........................fourteen days later Sunday Jan. 23 negative.......................and seven days after that Monday Jan. 31 positive and Tuesday Feb. 1 hcg 81. I don't know prog. levels................my gf talked to the nurse and she never told her. Grrrr I will find out tomorrow.

Can someone help me figure this out? What could have happened?

I hope that it is not a tubal or something like that. Has anyone ever had a similar situation? I am bracing myself either way (miscarriage or viable pregnancy). I know that God has this in His hands, and it is out of mine. I have searched and searched on the internet looking for answers, but I can't seem to find any.

Can you put your heads together and help me?

Thanks girls! And remember, test after your period.........................just to be on the safe side! :)

AMom~ Yes yes!! Post pix of your peestick!! We want to know!! Or at least stare at the photo until we think we know! (as for DP, I'm not giving her up while she's on a DIY tear! She fixed a window that had been broken for three years!!)

I have been known to break mine open and hold them up the window, bathroom light, flashlight. I even made my gf go get me a magnifying glass. She would look at me like I had lost my mind most of the time. I told her that some lines you had to see with your heart. :)

I never did get two lines on those tests. I thought if I stared at them long enough and visualized those lines they would appear.

This cycle might be the closest thing to a "surprise pregnancy" that I will ever get. When those lines popped up, I was like, "How in the world? I must be one of those rare people who get a false positive."

Oh the world of pregnancy tests. If you are an OCD person like myself, they are almost as addictive (and expensive) as buying scratch off tickets.

Escher—Sounds like you’ve got a good plan. I’d do both, too, just because I figure it can’t hurt.

Library—that would drive me crazy, too. Luckily our neighborhood is on top of things so tonight I could take them for their usual walk with no problems (we got almost 2 feet of snow, so that’s pretty amazing since some of these people never, ever shovel). Also my dogs are lazy beasts, so spend most of their time napping on the couch…

Gelly—Ugh! That sucks! I hope that you get them tomorrow—I think most places will be open again by then so hopefully you’ll have no problems. And no, I haven’t spent much time over there, mostly because I got so turned off by the HUGE pictures that everyone puts on their tags—why would I want to see everyone’s xmas card photos after every single thing they say? I’ve liked baby center, although I feel more at home here so I don’t tend to spend much time over there. I guess I’d be upset if we had a ton of new people here who are all asking pointed questions about which donor we’re using and why and what are their numbers all at once. But then again, maybe we wouldn’t be jerks, eh?

Indigo—she should put a little + sign next to the five. I guess they’re expecting everyone to be asylum seekers or something…

AMom—oooo….it’s so hard…to…hold back…the VEGGIES!!! But I will try!

Max—too early, too early!

Krista—We’re definitely only looking at donors that already have confirmed pregnancies. We switched this time (after try #4) partly because we had to with the whole Midwest fiasco, and partly because it seemed like 4 tries was plenty with one guy. If this one doesn’t work we’re on a break for March and will then see what our options are (if Midwest is open again I’d go back to them, DP isn’t so sure).

Tea—I don’t have any idea what could be happening, but I am very hopeful that you’ll get a good answer tomorrow. I think that seeing this thing out and trusting that what should be is what will be is a good way to go.

Kit--Congrats! I hope that we're interpreting this right--but hurray if we are!!! Oh, thank god. They were just dying for a chance to get out and dance!

AFM--completely flabbergasted to have been given tomorrow off, too! I'm planning to do some taste trials of my friends' wedding cake flavors and maybe get some sewing done (we've got towels shoved in our windows to keep out the draft, so maybe it's time to make something a little more attractive?)

I am new to the forums. My DW and I have been trying to get me knocked up for a while. We just had our 7th office IUI today. We are working with a GLBT health center and not a fertility clinic so I haven't really had any monitoring other than 3 months of BBT charting before we started in the program and OPK testing to determine insemination date. I am 27, healthy and have very regular periods. I've menstruated almost exactly 14 days from every insemination we've done. This month is going to be our first month doing 2 IUI's (second one tomorrow) as they are likely going to start me on clomid next month. I had day 3 bloodwork this month (don't know the results yet) and an HSG test last week, which came back totally clear.

I am just feeling discouraged right now. I have this irrational fear that there is nothing wrong with me and clomid will make me have quadruplets or something, while at the same time I feel like it's never going to happen.

I'm a crisis social worker and I hate my very stressful job. I'm quitting at the end of March and we are moving from super gay friendly MA to VA in order to be closer to our families. I just really don't want to deal with the seemingly hetero focused fertility clinics down there. Anyway, Hi! it's so nice to find a queer ttc board. Everybody cross your fingers for us that this month takes!

TeamU~ I have no idea what's going on, I've never heard of a circumstance like yours. I'm only sorry that it's causing you so much stress and worry. I'm inclined to agree with your midwife that it must be a tenacious little bean. I wish your doc would show a little more confidence in you and the baby. I hope that once this pregnancy's safely underway, you have a more supportive team.

Isa~ Yay for sewing! I was going to do nursery curtains, but the washer pipe's frozen and I can't do the prewash of the lining fabric. Grrrr!!! I might make DP take the dog out for a snow hike tomorrow, just to give me a break!!!

Vegan~ Hello and welcome! Trying to conceive is unbelievably frustrating and I know we've all gotten frustrated and near giving up more than once. Having a job you don't like, and an impending move can't be helpful. BIg hugs to you! You've certainly come to the right place for reassurance and support. It's a great group here, welcome to it!

Has anybody used oral clomid without follicle monitoring? I have heard of people producing too many eggs and calling off the insem. I don't think our clinic does ultrasounds or anything. Is that risky?

I'm still nursing dd at least three times a day, more if she's injured or upset. Our RE advised us to wean immediately upon contacting them re: IVF with hopes for a second child. I didn't want to wean DD and she isn't ready, so I asked for my tests to include an updated prolactin level to see if it was high enough to cause concern. It wasn't, and we carried on with the IVF cycle with DD still nursing. How much is your little one nursing these days?

Go vegan, I used clomid for 4 cycles w/o monitoring... I didn't get pregnant. I did move to u/s monitoring on clomid but I only produced 1 follie each cycle I was monitored (and got pg both times). HTH!

DP and I together since 2001, 4/10, 7/10DS - planned born via 4/4/2011)O(